PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 24: Brett Comer #0 of the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles reacts in the second half alongside Jamaal Franklin #21 of the San Diego State Aztecs during the third round of the 2013 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Center on March 24, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 159452663 ORIG FILE ID: 164575410 / Elsa Getty Images

by Jack Carey, USA TODAY Sports

by Jack Carey, USA TODAY Sports

Sophomore guard Bernard Thompson sent a message about his Florida Gulf Coast team Sunday night.

"Dunk City is coming to Arlington," Thompson said. "So everybody be ready."

And if they aren't after the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, they have no excuse. Florida Gulf Coast, in Division I for just six years and eligible for the postseason for two, has sent shockwaves through the field of 68, crumpling brackets along the way, entertaining new fans with their freewheeling style and even inspiring a rap video, Dunk City.

The Eagles also made history in this historic city, becoming the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16 thanks to an 81-71 victory against San Diego State in the third round of the South Regional.

And just as Florida Gulf Coast (26-10) had done in Friday's stunning upset of second-seeded Georgetown, it was a strong second-half surge that put the Atlantic Sun Conference champion in charge as SDSU (23-11) wilted under the relentless offensive surge.

The Eagles will next meet Florida, winner of the 2006 and 2007 national championships, in Friday's South semifinals in Arlington, Texas.

The Gators are one of the highest-profile programs in the nation. FGCU was hardly known beyond its Fort Myers campus on Florida's southern gulf coast before seizing the tournament spotlight.

They're thriving in it.

When it was over Sunday, Atlantic Sun Conference player of the year Sherwood Brown blew kisses to the crowd and he and his teammates mugged for television cameras and hugged at midcourt.

Bernard Thompson scored 23 points and Brown finished with 17 Sunday as the Eagles shot 56% from the floor and ran their offense with the same precision and efficiency that stunned Georgetown. FGCU took over with a 17-point run in the second half, much the same way as the Eagles outscored Georgetown 21-2 in the second half Friday.

"That's just our style of play. We want to push the ball down the court and we want to attack, attack, attack," said point guard Brett Comer, who finished with 14 assists. "We're going to be in full attack mode the entire game."

And even a team like SDSU, which plays well in the open floor, had a tough time responding to it.

"You can see they were a little shaken up by how we come out and put the pressure on them," said Thompson. "We just come out and try to make them crack."

The Eagles became media darlings and caught the nation's attention Friday against Georgetown. But early in the regular season, the signs were there. FGCU beat eventual ACC champion Miami (Fla.), now the No. 2 seed in the East.

None of the accomplishments come as surprises to second-year coach Andy Enfield and his group of lightly recruited players.

Enfield, 43, is a former player at Division III Johns Hopkins (Md.), where he was the program's all-time scoring leader and set an NCAA record with a 92.5% career free-throw conversion rate, Enfield has long been known as a shooting guru.

His shooting expertise and instructional videos helped get him assistant coaching jobs with the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics, but he also got a masters degree in business from Maryland.

More than a decade ago, he helped to start up a contract management service for the health-care industry, called TractManager, which made him a fortune on Wall Street.

Enfield also is married to supermodel Amanda Marcum Enfield, who gave up her jet-setting career to become a coach's wife and raise their three young children.

Seven years ago, he decided to move to the coaching ranks full time, taking an assistant's job at Florida State. After learning about building a program from Seminoles coach Leonard Hamilton, Enfield felt he was ready to step out on his own.

Two years ago, he moved to FGCU, which was trying to make a name for itself in the Atlantic Sun.

While Enfield says some recruits he has talked to the past couple of years knew very little about the school (a few got it confused with Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Fla.), that problem will probably by alleviated now.

Playing an up-tempo style in an era where scores in the 50s are common, FGCU reached the Atlantic Sun tournament final last year and won 15 games, its most since joining Division I.

But that was nothing like what's happened this month, with a conference championship and now a couple of the more memorable upsets in NCAA history among Enfield's credentials.

After beating the Hoyas, Enfield said his players were a "bunch of crazy dudes." He returned to that theme Sunday, but made it clear they also know when to get to work.

"We don't take ourselves too seriously," he said. "We have a lot of guys on the team who are characters. We're FGCU. Hopefully by now, people are learning those initials. When we came into this tournament, we knew no one knew who we were or where we were. Most people don't even know where Fort Myers or Southwest Florida is.

"(The players) made huge jumps in the offseason, and they made a big jump from the middle of this season. We had a couple of really bad losses in the middle of the season, and now we've won 14 out of 16. So, we're playing at a high level."

And doing it at the right time.

Enfield said he knows Florida coach Billy Donovan well, and is familiar with many Gators players from recruiting them when he was at Florida State.

"They are great people," he said. "We know they can be beaten, but we also have an unbelievable amount of respect for them, the players and the coaching staff.

"They have one of the best programs and have had the success that all of us want to have one day."